


Maybe In Another Universe (I Deserve You)

by epherians



Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Smut, F/F, Inspired by Music, Non-Canon Relationship, OTP Feels, One Shot Collection, One True Pairing, Rare Pairings, Slow To Update, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmate-Identifying Timers, Soulmates, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-20
Updated: 2018-05-09
Packaged: 2018-08-09 23:58:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7822288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epherians/pseuds/epherians
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Because you could have loved me forever. And maybe in another universe, I let you.” -Gaby Dunn</p><p>A compilation of soulmate-themed prompts for my OTP. All chapters are oneshots, but part of a soulmate-themed continuity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Words I (On the Tiles of Waterloo)

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: “soulmate AU where you wake up on your 18th birthday with the first words your soulmate will say to you tattooed on your body so you’ll know them when you meet them.”

####  _“Oh, splendid, you’re here to murder me.”_

* * *

####  _“I’m not here to murder you, Miss Attaway, I want to help you.”_

 

Evie is certain of one thing regarding her soulmate: it must be a target, someone anticipating death at the cruel mercy of her blade. Her future as an Assassin has been sealed, it seems…but regardless of who may be fated to be with her, there can be no deviations, no personal feelings. The mission, their work, comes first and foremost, just as Father ascribes. Evie has perfected her belief of living by the Creed, and fated words will not stop her.

Yet all that changes when she sees her—her soulmate. They meet purely by accident, but Evie’s soulmate is a woman who can identify on the spot her purpose for being, and the purpose of her blade. “ _Oh, splendid, you’re here to murder me…_ ” Pearl Attaway murmurs, ruefully shaking her head with such grace and dignity at her fate. It is at that moment, when Evie looks at her, she realizes she doesn’t _want_ to. It comes to her like a clear, great revelation: _Why would she murder her soulmate?_

So her proposition is good and gleaming as gold. “ _I’m not here to murder you, Miss Attaway, I want to help you._ ” Her plea speaks of partnership, and Attaway agrees. A spark of connection is lit. They shake on the hands revealing designs and promises etched deeper into their skin than by ink alone.

“Truer words were never spoken,” Attaway finds graciously appropriate to supply, and she couldn’t have been more correct.

From there, they become more reckless and scheming than the Blighters and Rooks combined. If Pearl wants a storage yard destroyed, Evie will do it. If she wants the internal combustion engines, Evie will do it. If she wants the competition sent by Starrick sabotaged, Evie Frye will do it, and with no hesitation.

She accomplishes all three, and Pearl is most pleased. The reward is Pearl kissing her and showing her experiences she never had before. Success is more intoxicating than alcohol, but lust and love are more satisfying than success. It's the whirlwind of her life, getting spirited away to trysts in the night and sneaking back onto the train as if Jacob and Henry haven't noticed. Pearl is hers, and she couldn’t be happier.

It doesn’t last.

The last venture to stop a scheming competitor has the felled victim pleading in his last words. She doesn't believe Malcolm Millner’s lies spun about Pearl to scare her. Pearl wouldn’t do that. It’s all just a bluff by a dying crook, right?

She needs to find her. Pearl was going to meet her after Millner’s end, right? But as Evie searches the streets of Southwark, her soulmate is nowhere to be found.

Days pass with no contact, until Jacob presents a set of letters intercepted by the Rooks. Private correspondence with the Grand Master, boasting of a Templar cause withheld from an Assassin. It is without a doubt Pearl's handwriting, her words marked by the Templar seal and blood running through the lines of her and Crawford Starrick.

Evie grips the parchment with seething anger, reading until the last line at the bottom and resolving nothing more than to take Pearl’s life at Waterloo.

Fury makes her forget other traces of thought. _Where is she hiding?_ is all she wants to know. Forget letting feelings compromise the mission: she is still an Assassin and an Assassin knows only one thing is stronger than emotions—the motion to kill.

But as the kill happens, the blade driving through her target’s throat, it all ends so suddenly. Pearl gapes in blood, but is gone before she can speak. The train is thickly silent, the Templars will soon be after her.

And Evie finally realizes what she has done.

No, nononono, it all starts to fall apart. Why did she kill Pearl? She was an enemy, right? A Templar who would’ve betrayed her to Starrick! No, she was murdered in cold blood, a woman not given any chance to explain herself. She was still

—her _soulmate_. More than a Templar, more than a traitor. Pearl was her partner, the one she had a connection with and was destined to be with. But it seemed like Pearl didn’t carry the same sentiments. Was she only going to use Evie as her pawn, or could she have been convinced to come around had Evie let her talk? Somehow it feels like no matter how much she tries to justify it, Evie can’t run away from the guilt gravely screaming in her ears, eyes, and mind.

This wasn’t supposed to be planned. At least, not as planned as the words forever printed on her left wrist. _You’re here to murder me,_ Pearl first thought when she saw Evie.

 _Why would she_ ever _murder her soulmate?_ Evie once thought in return. Her naïveté echoes and echoes, and now she will live with the knowledge of her (late, lost) soulmate due to that day.


	2. Last Words (Sorry to Inform,)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “soulmate au where instead of your soulmates first words to you written on your skin it’s their last words you ever hear them say so you don’t know who your soulmate is until you lose them.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who finally updated after the end of the semester? If you see this, thank you for being patient and giving this a read.

####  _“You have not won, Pearl Attaway.”_

* * *

####  _“I don’t need to.”_

 

“I suppose you shall be the one to take my life?”

Attaway doesn’t turn around, without even seeing or knowing if Evie was the one to approach her. The stealthy one is stunned and doesn’t know what to say.

The plan was simple: distract Attaway while Jacob found a way around to make the kill. If Evie could lure the guards’ attention onto her, Jacob would finish the job and they'd be on their way.

She has to choose her answer carefully. “I wouldn't give you a chance to speak if that was the case.”

“My life is on the line right now,” the Templar identifies. “I should have the right to choose if I want to live, or be ended at the discretion of your blade.”

“What you have done is unforgivable.”

“Is it? And here I thought you would’ve convinced me before I let your brother into my scheme.” Attaway smirks at Evie’s sudden gasp. “You thought I didn’t know? Word of you Assassins travels fast.”

Ire rises and flares. “How long did you know? Were you going to keep this a secret forever?”

“Perhaps I was,” Attaway answers. “You weren’t showing signs of figuring me out anytime soon.”

“Jacob trusted you! I thought he was helping you!”

“He _was_. When I needed help, he graciously offered. Isn't that what you noble people do to help your cause?”

“Only those who deserve our help should receive it,” Evie snarls.

“What makes me so undeserving? I was in trouble like any civilian, all because those Blighter scoundrels wouldn't so much as let me bat an eye at them!” Attaway looks at the young Frye and grins. “Your Rooks work for the betterment of people like me.”

“People like you ought to look at what side you stand on!”

“ _You're_ one to talk. Can you do anything but stand there with your blade?”

“I'm not the one with a score to settle.” Evie's answer is automatic.

“Indeed, you're not. You and I will have to wait here for your brother then.”

_Distract _, Evie reminds herself, that is _all_ she has to do. None of Attaway’s words are true and her trickery won't continue for much longer. At least until Attaway looks at her again and smiles.__

__“You interest me, Miss Frye. If only we were introduced under more pleasant circumstances—I’m sure things could have been a lot more different…”_ _

__Evie all but backs away, trying not to let her foe get near. “I don't believe you at all, Miss Attaway.” She shakes her head._ _

__“What are you so scared of? Afraid I'll make you lose your way?”_ _

__“Your threats mean nothing to me.”_ _

__“Denial usually implies otherwise,” Attaway purrs, before standing up to corner Evie in the small of the train. “What have I threatened you with? A chance to know one another? You'd like that, wouldn't you, Miss Frye.”_ _

__“No-”_ _

__“Perhaps I could help you look for the Shroud instead of getting tripped up by Lucy.”_ _

__“You’d sell me out like you did to Jacob!”_ _

__“Well, to the victor belongs the spoils, dear.”_ _

__“You have not won, Pearl Attaway.”_ _

__“I don’t need to.”_ _

__Evie is suddenly pulled into a kiss when the sound of shattering glass takes everything with it._ _

__In mere moments, Attaway is pinned to the ground, strangled in blood triumphant by Jacob's blade, ending anymore she wanted to say._ _

__“Our partnership has certainly dissolved, I'm afraid,” Jacob murmurs, while handling last rites and marking a handkerchief with her blood._ _

__“What happened between you and her, Jacob?” Evie finds herself belatedly asking._ _

__Jacob's reply is miffed. “I thought she was telling me the truth. A mistake I won't make again.” He turns to leave, but notices his sister lingering behind. “It's nothing to concern yourself with, Evie. Let's go.”_ _

__The mark on Evie’s arm tells a different story. It compliments the one hidden by Attaway’s sleeve._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: A countdown of only five days.


	3. Countdown I (For the Late...)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: “Soulmate clock countdown to how long the soulmate has left to live.”
> 
> Pearl’s timer had well over seventy years, but Evie couldn’t fathom why hers had only five days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise there will be other scenarios besides canonverse repeated ad nauseam.

What they knew was they were soulmates, but what they didn't know were the reasons behind their timers. Now, it was long proven that the timers counted down how long one’s soulmate had left to live—Pearl’s timer had well over seventy years, but Evie couldn't fathom why hers had only five days.

At first, Evie hadn't disclosed this—the truth was too much to let sink in. She had kept the blinking timer covered by the thick sleeve of her coat and the bulky gauntlet above it. “I prefer you should not,” the Assassin said a bit too forcefully to the older woman when they first met. “Perhaps…I'm not the right one.” And Evie said it not out of rejection (no, never), but for the sake of protecting the one whom she loved.

But Evie was a poor liar and Pearl knew right away. There was no mistaking the instant recognition that pulled them together—a connection that was felt due to everyone boasting a timer of some form—and all it took was a pressing of hands, a silent smile, an unspoken nod, before Evie unclasped the blade to show the timer on her wrist.

And Pearl understood. Pearl suspected and Pearl explained her thoughts about a business rival who had been conducting several attacks on her property as of late. “I know for certain he wants to eliminate the competition. I would not be surprised if he’d resort to murdering me outright.”

“Don't say that!” Evie started, as her eyes fell on the timer of Pearl’s own wrist. How could a long life be ahead of her if she had no partner to share it with? “What if…what if we stop him? If we could stop the threat on your life, then won't you be safe? The timer might change.”

Pearl’s smile became genuine, as if she knew instantly why her soulmate was the young woman standing before her and how she would love her forever. “Miss Frye, that is a wonderful plan. I might know of a way for us to start on it.”

The next morning’s papers would rave on the shocking twist to the Attaway-Millner bus feud, in which Malcolm Millner’s shipyard of omnibuses was destroyed by an explosion of dynamite. But for Evie Frye, all that mattered was that Millner wouldn't have his buses trying to crash Pearl Attaway’s in the streets anymore.

 

* * *

 

The next day, Pearl came to her with a plan to steal Malcolm Millner’s engines. “Internal combustion,” the tycoon explained, “which means they are valuable and would be a big loss if Millner were to never receive them.”

It was a no-brainer for the likes of Evie and her accomplices. They spent the whole day going on a train heist, and for kicks, she invited Pearl to come along. (“How would you like to see a real train robbery?”) For all she believed in business ethics, Pearl found nothing so enticing as Evie Frye, another woman, singlehandedly decoupling train cars with the hammering of her special blade. They were rather victorious with the car that held the engines, and Pearl resolved to gather intel on Millner’s next move now that his resources were crippled.

There were still three days left; neither had to worry.

 

* * *

 

Malcolm Millner had the unfortunate timing of being on his cargo ship as soon as it was detonated. The Millner Company was history in one fell swoop. As soon as Evie returned to Pearl, they hugged and went off to celebrate the night, confident they were free from the threat on Pearl’s business and life. There was dancing, drinking, and some first-time kissing. _This must be the bond of soulmates,_ they thought, and this was the happiest they would be in a long time.

The happiness ended when Pearl received a letter in the morning. Her dear cousin requested her help in overseeing a shipment of engines the late Mr. Millner was expected to receive. The shipment would arrive in one day’s time.

—Evie's timer was still ticking. One day left.

The girl’s first instinct was to cry. If not through tears (Assassins didn't have them), then verbal anguish. “I only just met you, why can't we stay together? Why does our fate have to be determined by a stupid timer?”

Pearl kissed Evie hard and squeezed Evie’s hands to calm her down. “We’re going to be all right,” she assured firmly. “This, too, will pass. I need not know what happens when the timer expires, because we will still be here after it.”

“Do you really think so…?”

“Of course I do, dearest.” And they hugged each other. They hugged each other for a long time.

 

* * *

 

They knew they hadn't much time left, so they made the most of the day with each other. Sightseeing, strolling through the park, shopping for trinkets—it was the most normal day they had together.

“Will you come with me to Waterloo tomorrow?” Pearl asked at the end of the day.

“Yes,” Evie answered without hesitation.

In some ways, they wanted to forget the notion of living with a timer. Nothing was known to them about what the future held, what would happen when the clock struck zero. But Evie promised her lover they would stay together, no matter what.

“I'm not going anywhere until that timer hits zero and you are still here.”

For all she wanted to believe, the timer was a test and if they could beat it, they'd be free to spend the rest of their lives together, however they pleased.

 

* * *

 

On the fifth and final day, Pearl was expected at Waterloo. Evie would not leave her side and insisted on staying with her in the train to ensure it was secure, just as the blueprints said.

“How much longer to complete the transfer?” Evie asked.

“The engines require higher security to transfer safely,” Pearl explained. “We had to close off the central station to the public, but of course they still persisted. We can't make the exchange with so many of them in the way.”

Surely, Evie could head out and create some method of neutralizing the crowds. But she decided against it, advising her partner, “We’re safest if we stay where we are.” She remained on watch while Pearl attended to her letters. Neither dared to know how much time they had left.

Then unexpectedly, the crowds started to stream in. The station chief heralded, “Central Station is now open!” and Evie scrambled to figure out what was going on. In the confusion, she never realized any of it in time.

Before she could pinpoint the threat, a smoke bomb went off and both were coughing in the unseeable mess. _This is the trap,_ the Assassin realized. She had just enough time to get Pearl underneath the desk, and then failed to counter the hidden blade in time.

Pearl came out from the desk to see her soulmate slain in blood, by a hooded stranger who looked so uncannily similar. “Evie, why!?” he cried out in anguish.

Evie, who clutched her throat, smiled weakly as the timer on her wrist just happened to show: _00:00:00._ “For her…” she croaked. “I did it…for her…”

For Evie never knew her soulmate was a Templar, unlike her twin brother who was certain of the fact. As Pearl barely registered the scene before her, she looked down at her timer and saw it matched: _00:00:00._

A blanking out of no coincidence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update: "I'm addicted to you" is getting delayed. Instead, the next chapter might be a shorter prompt that ends with Evie beating the crap out of Starrick.


	4. Pain I (Halt the Horses! Still the Wheels!)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: You don’t know who your soulmate is until they die—when they do it’s like you’ve known them and loved them and feel every ounce of hurt and etc.

_A dagger to her neck is a shot through her heart._

Evie starts to clutch her chest in uncontrollable pain. No, not physical pain, not pain in her body—pain of so much more. Her body is fine—why does it feel like she isn't though?

Because she is broken out of her thoughts from Bob, the conductor’s deputy. Because Waterloo is closed and the train will have to make a detour, he announces. Because Evie looks up and the station is wracked with commotion, the kind that is had when the public discovers an assassination, of a leading figure in transportation no less. 

Because she looks up at the portrait on the Templar wall and sees the most beautiful woman there—and fears the worst when Jacob enters and crosses her out in red.

Evie remembers Pearl Attaway, even though she never met her. There's an unexplainable sadness that falls over her, almost like the mourning of Father’s passing. The memories flood back, not like a gradual, crashing wave to drown her, but more like an instant remembering of something she forgot. Why did she forget? How could she forget? It all came back together with the pain in her heart and throat and she fears the worst—

She beats the crap out of Crawford Starrick and doesn't know why. All this time, it feels like she _loved_ Pearl, but there's nothing can be done about it now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Been a while since I updated. Thank you if you are still reading this.


	5. Noir (Open Eyes)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Reverse colors; you can see in color but the world turns black and white when you meet your soulmate. If your soulmate dies, you see color again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to [wraith17](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wraith17) for encouraging me to finish this!
> 
> This prompt comes directly from the ["Addicted to You" music video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc9c12q3mrc). Thank you, Tea_Logic for suggesting this video and gangster AU idea to me ages ago.

(This is not a story where everything goes well. This is a story where it all goes wrong.)

“Never allow feelings to compromise the mission,” Father once said. “Love will distract you from your duty!”

Father, of course, was talking about soulmates—partners with whom you would lose all color in your vision—and told his children not to find them, ever. He met Mother and lost her too soon, and wanted his children to avoid the same fate.

But as it so happened, Evie knew she met her soulmate because everything changed as soon as she heard a gunshot. She whipped up looking for the source of the sound, and met the eyes of a woman distinctly wearing purple before _the color faded from her eyes and all that was left in the world was shades of black, white, and grey._

_The woman held a gun and stood next to a dead body. She was terrified—confused, looking up at Evie as though the world radically shifted for her as well—that when they locked eyes, the woman seemed to know._

_“I'm not afraid to admit his blood is on my hands.” She admitted the truth with clear certainty. “I should know you are my witness, dear soulmate of mine.”_

_“What do you mean?”_

_“I must turn myself in,” she declared._

_“It doesn't have to be this way…” Evie found herself saying._

_“The police will be looking for me. One way or another, I cannot escape.”_

_Evie grabbed the woman’s hand. “I will not let my soulmate be separated from me.”_

_“Then what's your game?”_

_The moment was interrupted by approaching whistles and sirens. The police shouted for them and there could be no mistake. But Evie took the woman’s handgun and held it up, and in that moment they ran._

_They ran rampant through the streets, police force unrelenting in their pursuit. By the grace of smoke bombs, voltaic bombs, and a vacant carriage to hijack, Evie and her companion were on the road to escape, and it was only then that the magnitude of their actions sunk in._

_“We can't stay,” Evie realized._

_Her partner asked, “Where do we go?”_

_“As far away as possible.” A hung silence in the air. Everything in the life they knew, they had to leave behind. The world was grey and colorless and there was nothing they could do to escape it. But what did Evie know? All she knew was the woman with her was her soulmate, and her soulmate was in danger._

_After a while, the woman spoke her name. “Pearl Attaway.”_

_“…Evie Frye.”_

_“Thank you for saving me, Miss Frye.”_

_It was far too past regretting her decision. Evie swallowed and swallowed the fear rising in her throat and reasoned with herself. “I had to do what I could to save you. And I must keep you safe.”_

_The world was grey and colorless and two women on the run only had each other for comfort._

_The carriage was their only way of escaping as fast as they could, and they never looked back. The world was going to declare them enemies all out of some foolish decision. Soon they would need to fight back. It wasn’t long before the papers reported the owner of Attaway Transport missing—wanted for murder—and her accomplice, one hooded female assassin who was responsible for the gang wars that occurred in parts of London as of late._

_Oh, but they wouldn't be found in London. At least not where they could be reported. They would break into banks and shops in the dead of night, pointing their pistols and threatening for all the money to be handed over. The fearful people complied, and all that could be said was how the women got away in their carriage, full of treasures to the brim, laughing and enjoying the wind at their backs as if they were free to live as they pleased._

_“Let's rob the Bank,” Pearl said one evening. It meant going back to London, but it would be a splendid idea. Oh, if they could conquer the Bank of England, no one would dare challenge them again!_

_The transport tycoon even had the perfect tool for their endeavor. “An internal combustion engine,” she called it. “It'll destroy the vault door with its detonation—giving us access to all of London’s riches.”_

_Evie couldn’t hide her glee at this plan. “I’m so excited I could kiss you!”_

_“Do it.” Pearl grinned as her young lover leapt into her arms._

_The holdup was so, so easy. The two women traipsed in with their pistols and everyone cowered to the floor. Pearl enjoyed threatening Mr. Twopenny to empty the register. Money was thrown in the air and to celebrate the moment, Evie got Pearl to stand on the counter with her as they kissed passionately._

_(They were too lost in love to notice Twopenny sneaking away to alert the authorities.) All at once, their joy was interrupted by the approaching cavalry._

_“Drop your weapons and put your hands up!” Abberline called out. “I’m sorry I have to do this.”_

_“I promise,” Jacob pleaded, “we're not going to hurt you if you come with us!”_

_“You’ll arrest us,” Evie countered as her arm remained aimed. “You know that’s a lie!”_

_“We’ve already won, darlings. It’s over.” Pearl had set up the detonation device on the vault door and was walking to the front with her pistol at the ready—when she was shot._

_(They never knew there was a sniper, out of sight as soon as the job was done.) Evie saw Pearl fall and didn’t want to think it was real, until the wound started to grow_ and she started to see **red…**

**The blood was becoming real.**

Everything was slipping fast and all Evie could focus on was holding her lover as she looked at her with a smile. “Thank you, Evie… I love you…”

The light left Pearl’s eyes and proof remained in the blood pooling from the gunshot. The color in Evie’s vision had nothing against her blind anguish for what she did next.

To her brother and the sergeant, they thought Evie was surrendering on her own terms. But as she saw them, she ran faster and faster and it was too late to notice she had the combustion device with her—

—and it took everyone with it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: Are we finally getting frenemy smut!? Do I finally get to up the rating and use my smut chapter indicator!?


End file.
